The scoop on salt: Unraveling the headlines

Despite the conflicting studies and reports in the media, most health professionals still agree that decreasing sodium intake is a good idea.Photo by
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Salt is bad for your health. Salt is good for your health. Salt is bad for your health. Salt is good for your health.

Sound familiar? It seems like there have been stories in the media almost every day lately detailing the effects of sodium on health. One day a low-salt diet will decrease your risk of developing heart disease, and the next there is no evidence to support the benefits of eating less salt.

Even the Canadian government has flip-flopped on the issue of salt reduction. After developing Canada’s Sodium Reduction Strategy in 2010, in early 2011 the government disbanded the Sodium Working Group, which was supposed to monitor and enforce Canadians’ efforts to reduce sodium.

And just last week, the Campbell Soup Company announced that they would be adding sodium back into their U.S. soups after efforts to lower the sodium in their products resulted in plummeting sales.

So how are you to know what is best for your family? Here is the truth behind the headlines.

Unraveling the headlines

On July 6, 2011, a national news station posted a story titled “Dietary salt cutbacks bring few heart benefits,” based on a review of seven studies published by the Cochrane Library.

This review, which included almost 6,300 participants, found that there was not enough evidence to suggest a low-sodium diet would help prevent heart disease or death. The majority of the participants did see a reduction in blood pressure; however, the authors argued that this reduction was minimal and would have very little impact on heart disease risk.

The release of this study faced steep criticism by researchers and medical professionals who contended that this study had too many problems: the follow-up times for most studies were too short; the total sample size of the review was too small; and the diets in the studies were not low enough in sodium.

Less than a week later, in an effort to dispel the findings of the previous study, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control released a study citing the benefits of a low-sodium, high-potassium diet. One headline from a large international news website read: “High salt + low potassium = early death.”

This study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at the diets of 12,267 U.S. adults. At the beginning of the study, the participants were asked to keep track of what they ate for one day. They were then followed-up approximately 15 years later to see how many of them had died from heart diseases.

Researchers found that there was “a significant monotonic association between increasing sodium-potassium ratio and risk for all-cause, CVD [cardiovascular disease] and IHD [ischemic heart disease] mortality.”

It is important to note that this study also had its limitations. The participants’ diets were only assessed at the beginning of the study and not throughout; only 7 per cent of participants provided information on what they ate for more than one day; and other aspects of the participants’ diets, which could have affected their health, were not considered.

What all of this means for you and your family

Despite the conflicting studies and reports in the media, most health professionals still agree that decreasing sodium intake is a good idea. According to the Canadian Community Health Survey, published in 2004, more than 77 per cent of 1- to 3-year-olds, 93 per cent of 4- to 8-year-olds, and 88 per cent of 9- to 18-year-olds eat more sodium than what is considered to be the “safe” amount.

Even though the amount of sodium that is “safe” is under scrutiny, eating a diet high in sodium can mean that other more nutritious options are being left by the wayside. Approximately 80 per cent of sodium in the North American diet comes from processed and restaurant foods.

Amount of sodium you and your family need

Health Canada and the Institute of Medicine recommend an Adequate Intake and Tolerable Upper Limit for the amount of sodium people should eat each day. The Adequate Intake represents the amount of sodium that is needed to maintain a nutritionally balanced diet for other nutrients and to replace the sodium lost through sweat. The Tolerable Upper Limit is the maximum amount of sodium that a person can eat before potentially experiencing negative side effects.

Tips to help reduce sodium intake

- Choose foods that are naturally low in sodium more often, such as fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables.

- Read nutrition labels and look for items that have less than 5% Daily Value of sodium.

- Cook and eat family meals at home as much as possible.

- Pack snacks, such as cut up veggies and whole grain pitas, so you don’t have to buy packaged foods while on the run.

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